Michael Ringel is the Chief Operating Officer of Life Biosciences, a biotechnology company pioneering cellular rejuvenation therapies to reverse and prevent multiple diseases of aging. Michael became COO of Life just a few months ago, but he's been advising the company since 2018. Prior to this year, he was managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where over a 25-year career he focused on R&D and innovation initiatives across the private sector and government. He earned his PhD in biology at Imperial College London and a JD from Harvard Law, and has become an active and highly respected member of the global longevity biotech community.
In this episode, Chris and Michael explore Life Biosciences' groundbreaking approach to partial epigenetic reprogramming - the "holy grail" technology that could transform how we age at cellular, tissue, and organism levels. They discuss how this approach taps into the same biology that makes babies young, Life's lead therapeutic candidate ER-100 for eye diseases, and the "pipeline in a pill" concept at the core of the geroscience hypothesis: the idea that enable single interventions based on longevity science could treat multiple age-related diseases simultaneously.
The Finer Details:
- The biology behind partial epigenetic reprogramming and how it differs from full reprogramming to pluripotency
- Why Michael considers partial reprogramming the "holy grail" of longevity interventions
- Life Biosciences' lead candidate ER-100 for glaucoma and NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy)
- The innovative inducible system that allows the therapy to be turned on and off with doxycycline
- Why the eye represents an ideal starting point for reprogramming therapies
- The "pipeline in a pill" concept and geroscience hypothesis - how single interventions could treat multiple age-related diseases
- Parallels between the emerging longevity field and the massive GLP-1 drug market that many pharma companies missed
- The role of philanthropic investment in advancing fundamental longevity research
- Evolutionary theories of aging and why aging should be easily manipulable
- Timeline expectations for moving from single disease treatments to whole-body rejuvenation
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